Vise attachment



April 1968 G. w. HASELWOOD 3,377,062

VISE ATTACHMENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 17, 1966 April 1968 G. w. HASELWOOD 3,377,062

VISE ATTACHMENT Filed March 17, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 660/762' I'll/559364 W000 United States Patent Ofilice 3,377,062 VISE ATTACHMENT George W. Haselwood, Box 355, Muldrow, Okla. 74948 Filed Mar. 17, 1966, Ser. No. 535,205 7 Claims. (Cl. 269-265) This invention relates to an attachment for a vise and more particularly to an attachment adapted to accommodate round work pieces, such as pipes or the like.

An attachment of the general type embodied in the present invention is disclosed in my prior patent, No. 2,302,943, dated Nov. 24, 1942. As disclosed in my prior patent, the attachment comprises, in general, a rigid member having a generally V-shaped work engaging face and an opposed jaw engaging face adapted to seat on one jaw of the vise in symmetrical relation therewith. The rigid member of my prior patent is retained in operative position on the vise by means of a V-shaped strap or hail, the base of which hooks over a fastening element which must be threadedly engaged within the vise jaw. The attachment of my prior patent consequently required the drilling and tapping of an opening Within the vise structure itself before proper mounting could be effected.

After the attachment of my prior patent was secured in operative position on the vise jaw, the V-shaped strap served as the sole means for resisting torque applied to the work piece in one direction. It has been found that where very high torques must be applied in such direction, the tensile forces transmitted to the V-shaped strap sometimes resulted in fracture. On the other hand, when very high torques were applied in the opposite direction, there was a tendency for the rigid member to rotate off of the jaw permitting the work piece to slip out of tight securement between the vise jaws.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a vise attachment of the type described having improved means for securing the same in operative position on a vise jaw which eliminates the disadvantages noted above.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of an attachment for a jaw of a vise which may be simply secured in operative position to the vise jaw Without the necessity of modifying the structure of the vise in any way.

Still another object of the present invention is the provision of an attachment for a vise which is adapted to operatively engage a variety of different vises of different sizes and shapes in such away that relatively high torques applied to work pieces retained therein will be transmitted to the structure of the vise by the attachment in compression rather than tension, thereby providing for the positive retention of the work piece without danger of fracture of the attachment or disengagement of the attachment from the vise.

Still another object of the present invention is the provision of an attachment of the type described which is simple and economical in construction, easy to mount in operative position on a vise and effective in operation.

These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent during the course of the following detailed description and appended claims.

The invention may best be understood with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein illustrative embodiments are shown.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of a vise with an attachment embodying the principles of the present invention mounted thereon in operative work holding position;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the structure shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 33 of FIGURE 1, with the work piece removed;

3,377,062 Patented Apr. 9, 1958 FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a modified form of attachment embodying the principles of the present invention; and

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 showing the attachment of FIGURE 4, mounted in operative work holding position on a vise.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is shown in FIGURES 1-3 a vise 10, of generally conventional construction, to which an attachment, generally indicated at 12, embodying the principles of the pres ent invention has been mounted. The attachment 12 of the present invention is adapted to be mounted on vises of various standard designs and may be made in a range of sizes to fit vises of any desired size.

The standard vise 10 includes the usual body portion 14 adapted to be fixedly secured to a table top 16 or the like, as by a clamp assembly 18. Formed on the body portion 14 is a fixed jaw 20 having a vertically extending rectangular work engaging face 22 defined by upper and lower edges 24 and 26. Mounted for movement toward and away from the stationary jaw 20 is a movable jaw 28. In accordance with usual practice, the movable jaw 28 includes a fixed slide construction 30, which in the particular embodiment shown, consists of two vertically spaced circular rods slida'bly mounted within corresponding circular openings formed in the vise body 14. For the purpose of effecting the movement of the movable jaw 23 there is provided the usual threaded stem 32 rotatably mounted in the movable jaw member for turning movement by a handle 34 and threadedly engaged with the main body 14.

Vises of the type described above are quite conventional. Because of the planar configuration of the work engaging faces of the vice jaws, such vises do not effectively grip round work pieces, such .as pipe or the like. Some vises of this type are provided with integral Vshaped serrated gripping portions beneath the rectangular jaw faces for the purpose of holding pipes. However, these gripping faces are of limited applicability for the reason that their location is such that will not effectively grip pipes of small diameter nor will they hold pipes of a short axial dimension in a position permitting access due to the overhanging portion of the main jaws.

The attachment 12 of the present invention is provided for the purpose of rendering such vises capable of a gripping and handling round work pieces both of a small diameter and of a small axial dimension. The attachment 12 of the present invention is likewise quite effective in gripping and retaining round work pieces of larger dimensions and capable of retaining such work pieces within the vise under extremely high torque applications.

To this end, the attachment of the present invention comprises a rigid member, generally indicated at 36, which, as shown in FIGURE 1, is made by cutting a square bar stock into two equal lengths and welding the cut lengths together, as indicated at 38, with two edges disposed in abutting relation. With this construction, there is provided a relatively wide V-shaped work engaging face 40 and an opposed face including a rearwardly and downwardly facing upper surface portion 42 adapted to engage the upper edge 24 of the jaw 20 and an upwardly and rearwardly facing lower surface portion 4-4 adapted to engage the lower edge 26 of the jaw 29. It will be noted that the surface portions 42 and 44 are preferably planar and define an angle therebetween which is less than the angle of the V-shaped work engaging face 40.

Mounted on the lower central portion of the rigid member 36 is a stop element, generally indicated at 46. As shown, the stop element is in the form of a threaded stem or bolt shank engaged within a suitably threaded open-ing extending upwardly within the central lower portion of the rigid member 36 perpendicular to the associated face thereof. The lower end of the shank is formed with an abutment surface 48 adapted to engage the upper surface of the slide 30 of the vise when the attachment 12 is disposed in operative position, as is clearly shown in FIGURE 1.

The rigid member 36 is retained in operative position on the fixed jaw of the visa (although capable of being mounted on either jaw) by means of an elongated laterally flexible and longitudinally resilient assembly, generally indicated at 50. As shown, the assembly 56 is in the form of a helical tension spring having the opposite ends thereof secured to the lower portion of the rigid member 36, as by hook elements 52 or the like, at spaced positions disposed on opposite sides of the median vertical plane of the rigid member. As shown, the coil spring 50 extends from its spaced positions of securement to the lower portion of the rigid member 36 upwardly and around the body portion 14 of the vise disposed adjacent to the fixed jaw 20.

With this construction, the attachment 12 of the present invention may be mounted in operative position on the vise and removed therefrom simply by flexing or stretching the coil spring over the fixed jaw and adjusting the position of the rigid member with respect to the jaw 20 until the abutment surface 48 of the stop element 46 engages the upper surface of the slide in which case the ends of the rigid member will be substantially coextensive with the ends of the jaw 20.

As best shown in FIGURE 1, the position of the abutment surface 48 is such that when the rigid member 36 is in engagement with the vise jaw 20, the upper and lower surface portions 42 and 44 will engage the upper and lower edges 24 and 26, respectively, of the work engaging face of the jaw 20 with substantial line contacts. The resiliency of the coil spring assembly serves to maintain the rigid member in such line contact with the upper end lower edges of the jaw and the abutment surface 48 of the stop element in contact with the slide 30 of the vise.

It will be noted that when the rigid member 36 is retained in its operative position, as shown in FIGURE 1, a plane bi-secting the V-shaped work engaging face 40 and the angularly related upper and lower planar surface portions 42 and 44 is disposed at a slight angle with respect to the horizontal as, for example, of the order of 5. Thus, the angle defined between the jaw face 22 and the lower surface portion 44 is greater than the angle defined between the jaw of the face 22 and the upper surface portion 42. With this disposition of the surfaces 42 and 44 with respect to the jaw 20, the tightening of a work piece, such as a pipe 54, or the like, as shown in FIGURE 1, between the movable jaw 28 of the vise and the work engaging face 40 of the rigid member 36, will apply a horizontal force to the rigid member tending to more firmly engage the abutment surface 48 with the slide 30 of the vise, thus placing the stop element 46 in compression.

With the symmetrical construction of the rigid member 36 as shown, the V-shaped work engaging face 40 of the rigid member is likewise canted from the horizontal so that the axis of the pipe 54 is disposed below a horizontal plane bi-secting the work engaging faces of the vise jaw. This construction aids in transmitting the gripping forces of the vise to the rigid member in such a manner that they place the stop element under compression and effectively make the attachment of the present invention a rigid part of the vise jaw 20 so that when torque is applied to the pipe even of a relatively high value and in either direction, the rigid member will resist detachment from the vise either due to failure in compression in the stop element 46, when torque is applied in one direction, or by the rigid member rotating off of the jaw when torque is applied in the other.

It will be understood that the rigid member of the present invention is susceptible of being constructed by techniques other than the welding technique described above. For example, in FIGURE 4 there is shown a rigid member 56 which is cast of iron or other suitable material. As before, the rigid member 56 includes a V-shaped work engaging face 58 which, in the embodiment shown, is preferably provided with horizontally extending serrations serving to aid in the gripping action. The rigid member 56 also includes opposed upper and lower jaw engaging surface portions 60 and 62 for engaging respectively the upper and lower edges of the vise jaw in the member previously described. The rigid member 56 is preferably employed for use with vises of a larger size such as depicted in FIGURE 5. conventionally, such vises are of the same construction as the smaller vise 10 shown in FIGURES l and 2, except that the slide construction is in the form of a rectangular hollow member 64 rather than a pair of vertically spaced rods of circular cross section. With the cast construction of the rigid member 56 as shown in FIGURE 4, it is preferable to form a boss 66 on the lower central portion of the rigid member which is suitably apertured and internally threaded, as indicated at 68, to adjustably receive a stop element 70. The position of the axis of the stop element is such that it is disposed generally vertically when the attachment is disposed in its operative position and it may be suitably adjusted to accommodate vises of varying configuration in so far as the slide construction is concerned. If desired, a set screw 72 may be provided for securing the stop element in any position of adjustment.

The attachment shown in FIGURES 4 and 5 also illustrates a modification of the elongated laterally flexible and longitudinally resilient assembly for retaining the rigid member in operative position on the vise jaw. As shown, the assembly includes a section of helical tension spring 74 having one end connected to the lower portion of the rigid member 56, as by a hook 76, and its other end connected to one end of a length of link chain 78. At a position spaced from the vertical median of the rigid member 56 a distance equal to its spacing from the hook 76 there is provided another book 80 to which is connected one end of link chain 82, the opposite end of which carries a hook member 84.

With the assembly described above and shown in FIG- URE 5, the rigid member 56 may be attached to the jaw of the vice by tensioning the chain section 78 upwardly and around the fixed jaw of the vise and then engaging the hook member 84 selectively with one of the links of the chain. The rigid member may be disengaged simply by releasing the hook member 84 from the chain section 78.

Again, as shown in FIGURE 5, when the rigid member 56 is disposed in operative position, a plane bisecting the angle defined by the upper and lower surface portions 60 will be canted with respect to the horizontal slightly at an angle of the order of 5. Preferably, the angular disposition of the V-shaped work engaging face 58 is symmetrical with respect to the surfaces 60 and 62 so that when a circular work piece is engaged between the other jaw of the vise and the work engaging face 58, the

axis of the circular work piece is disposed below a horizontal plane bi-secting the vertically extending work engaging faces of the vise jaws.

It will be understood that a significant feature of the present invention is the provision of an attachment providing a rigid vise jaw and work engaging member which is substantially coextensive with the horizontal extent of the jaws of the vise to which it is attached. This permits at least one end of the rigid member to be aligned with the adjacent ends of the vise jaws so that circular work pieces having a relatively short axial dimension may be gripped in such a way as to provide ready working access. In some instances, in order to render the attachment more readily adaptible for attachment to vises of varying size, it may be desirable to provide more than one threaded opening 68 so that the lateral position of the stop element 70 may be varied to insure its engagement with the slide construction of the vise when at least one end of the rigid member is aligned with one end of the vise jaws.

It thus will be seen that the objects of this invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. It will be realized, however, that the foregoing specific embodiments have been shown and described only for the pur pose of illustrating the principles of this invention and are subject to extensive change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An attachment for a jaw of a vise comprising a rigid member of a size to extend over substantially the entire horizontal extent of a vise jaw and having a generally V-shaped work engaging face and an opposed jaw engaging face, said jaw engaging face including an upper surface portion facing in a direction rearwardly and downwardly for engaging the upper edge of the vice jaw with a substantial line contact and a lower surface portion facing rearwardly and upwardly for engaging the lower edge of the vise jaw with a substantial line contact, a stop element extending downwardly from the lower central portion of said member in a position to abutingly engage the vise slide when at least one end of said member is disposed in substantial alignment with one end of the vise jaw, elongated laterally flexible and longitudinally resilient means secured to the lower portion of said member at laterally spaced positions and engageable around the vise jaw for resiliently retaining said member in operative position on said jaw with said jaw engaging surface portions in substantial line contact with the edges of said jaw and said stop element in abutting engagement with the vise slide bar, the relative slope of said surface portions when said member is disposed in said operative position being such as to tend to cause movement of said member about its lines of contact with said jaw edges in the direction of engagement of said stop element with the vise slide when work is tightened between the work engaging face of said member and the other jaw of the vise whereby said member constitutes an effective rigid position when torque is applied to the work in either direction.

2. An attachment as defined in claim 1 wherein said jaw engaging surface portions are planar, the lower surface portion being disposed at an angle to the work engaging face of the vise jaw greater than the angle of said upper surface portion with respect of the work engaging face of the vise jaw when said rigid member is disposed in said operative position.

3. An attachment is defined in claim 2 wherein the V-shaped work engaging face of said rigid member is positioned with respect to said planar surface portions such that a horizontal plane passing through the center of a round work piece gripped therein when said rigid member is in operative position passes through the lower half of the vise jaw to which said rigid member is attached.

4. An attachment as defined in claim 3 wherein a plane 'bi-secting said V-shaped face is symmetrical with respect to said upper and lower surface portions.

5. An attachment as defined in claim 1 including means mounting said stop element on said member for movement into different positions of vertical adjustment to accommodate vises of diiferent configurations.

6. An attachment as defined in claim 1 wherein said elongated laterally flexible and longitudinally resilient means comprises a coil spring having opposite ends thereof connected with said member.

7. An attachment as defined in claim 1 wherein said elongated laterally flexible and longitudinally resilient means comprises separable sections separately connected with said member at said spaced positions, one of said sections including a length of flexible chain, the other of said sections including an element detachably connectable with any one of the links of said chain, one of said sections also including a length of coil spring.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,174,947 10/ 1939 Ramsey 269--268 2,302,943 11/ 1942 Haselwood.

FOREIGN PATENTS 422,944 12/ 1925 Germany.

a ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner. part of the vise resisting displacement from its operative 40 D. R. MELTON, Assistant Examiner. 

1. AN ATTACHMENT FOR A JAW OF A VISE COMPRISING A RIGID MEMBER OF A SIZE TO EXTEND OVER SUBSTANTIALLY THE ENTIRE HORIZONTAL EXTENT OF A VISE JAW AND HAVING A GENERALLY V-SHAPED WORK ENGAGING FACE AND AN OPPOSED JAW ENGAGING FACE, SAID JAW ENGAGING FACE INCLUDING AN UPPER SURFACE PORTION FACING IN A DIRECTION REARWARDLY AND DOWNWARDLY FOR ENGAGING THE UPPER EDGE OF THE VICE JAW WITH A SUBSTANTIAL LINE CONTACT AND A LOWER SURFACE PORTION FACING REARWARDLY AND UPWARDLY FOR ENGAGING THE LOWER EDGE OF THE VISE JAW WITH A SUBSTANTIAL LINE CONTACT, A STOP ELEMENT EXTENDING DOWNWARDLY FROM THE LOWER CENTRAL PORTION OF SAID MEMBER IN A POSITION TO ABUTINGLY ENGAGE THE VISE SLIDE WHEN AT LEAST ONE END OF SAID MEMBER IS DISPOSED IN SUBSTANTIAL ALIGNMENT WITH ONE END OF THE VISE JAW, ELONGATED LATERALLY FLEXIBLE AND LONGITUDINALLY RESILIENT MEANS SECURED TO THE LOWER PORTION OF SAID MEMBER AT LATERALLY SPACED POSITIONS AND ENGAGEABLE AROUND THE VISE JAW FOR RESILIENTLY RETAINING SAID MEMBER IN OPERATIVE POSITION ON SAID JAW WITH SAID JAW ENGAGING SURFACE PORTIONS IN SUBSTANTIAL LINE CONTACT WITH THE EDGES OF SAID JAW AND SAID STOP ELEMENT IN ABUTTING ENGAGEMENT WITH THE VISE SLIDE BAR, THE RELATIVE SLOPE OF SAID SURFACE PORTIONS WHEN SAID MEMBER IS DISPOSED IN SAID OPERATIVE POSITION BEING SUCH AS TO TEND TO CAUSE MOVEMENT OF SAID MEMBER ABOUT ITS LINES OF CONTACT WITH SAID JAW EDGES IN THE DIRECTION OF ENGAGEMENT OF SAID STOP ELEMENT WITH THE VISE SLIDE WHEN WORK IS TIGHTENED BETWEEN THE WORK ENGAGING FACE OF SAID MEMBER AND THE OTHER JAW OF THE VISE WHEREBY SAID MEMBER CONSTITUTES AN EFFECTIVE RIGID PART OF THE VISE RESISTING DISPLACEMENT FROM ITS OPERATIVE POSITION WHEN TORQUE IS APPLIED TO THE WORK IN EITHER DIRECTION. 